1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a merchandise sales data processing apparatus such as an electronic cash register or a POS (Point Of Sales) terminal, and more particularly to a merchandise sales data processing apparatus connected to a money changer.
2. Discussion of the Background
A system where a POS terminal is connected to a money changer is known in the related art. In this system at the close of a transaction, the POS terminal calculates a change (money remaining from the transaction) by subtracting the purchase price from an amount of deposited money. And the POS terminal sends data showing the amount of resulting change to the money changer. Then, the money changer automatically dispenses money equal to that amount of change. Thus, a cashier inserts the money paid by a customer into the money changer in the transaction, and hands the money dispensed from the money changer along with a receipt to the customer. The money paid by the customer is in this way re-circulated as change money. The money is therefore stored within a section of the money changer except when being exchanged between the customer and cashier and therefore cannot be removed unless the cover of the money changer is opened with a key. The above system in this way prevents crimes such as cash robberies.
However, the above system does allow illegal actions such as the cashier appropriating money received from the customer instead of inserting the money into the money changer. To prevent such illegal actions, an apparatus for checking which cashier performed an illegal transaction is disclosed in JP-A No.198866/1998.
In the money changer, the differential amount between credit amount and disbursement amount usually matches the sales price. However, problems may occur where these figures do not match for some reason. One cause might be illegal actions by the cashier as described above. Other causes might for example include entering the wrong figure as the deposit amount, or loosing the deposit money due to the cashier dropping it on the floor when attempting to insert the deposit money into the money changer, etc.
To solve the problem of the differential between the credit amount and disbursement amount in the money changer not matching the sales amount, it is important to analyze the cause of the problem. The technique disclosed in JP-A No.198866/1998 allows determining which cashier caused the problem. However, analyzing the causes of the problem even just this information was difficult.